Here's the amazing part. In the earlier story in the Times today, we have the following coupla grafs:

But the system capacity for new cable channels has been tapped out. At the same time, the broadcast networks, which have seen their audience erode and advertising growth slow, are desperate for new sources of revenue. They see the fees from cable and satellite operators as a way to rejuvenate their fortunes.

"It really and truly is the future," said Tony Vinciquerra, chief executive of the Fox Networks Group. Without those fees, he warned, "the business won't survive."

Now, I'm a first-time landlord this year. Our new tenants are pretty young (one of them is Helen's trainer). I was at the property on the day they moved in, and overheard them debating how low they could cut the price of Internet service thanks to a friend who worked for Time-Warner — but cable TV was certainly an option they could live without, because all the interesting stuff was available online. Not to extrapolate too much from a sample size of about three, but I have read elsewhere that this is a significant trend. If so, Fox has just jumped from the Titanic to the Andrea Dorea.